Possession.

John really wanted to make his build around Possession, therefore it made the most sense to evolve it. When he looked back at the serious fights he had been in thus far it was also the skill that had helped the most. Without Possession the Wall Shadow wouldn’t have disposed of the Rockers, without it the Spectre would have killed Rave and the second time he fought that beast he was able to shackle it thanks to it. It was, without a doubt, the best spell in his arsenal. It would have been a worthwhile thought to increase Craft or Enchant instead but he couldn’t do that because they weren’t available for the choosing. Therefore he, after thinking and denying the possibility of choosing Mana Power Attack instead, clicked on the plus next to Possession.

He got three options. Awesome. So he could actually customize whenever he evolved something. What was more was that all three of these skills seemed stupendously good.

Body Swap was not only a great tool for fighting, the amount of chaos he could create in the enemy ranks would be legendary, but also, effectively, made him immortal as long as he swapped into younger bodies again and again. But he wasn’t old yet anyway. There also were some questions that came along with that skill. Would his old body just die without a conciousness? Did his Stats get transferred over or would he have to level up again and again? What happened if an enemy resisted the Spell? Wouldn’t he effectively **** everyone who he used this on? Didn’t sound like his kind of deal. That option he wouldn’t take but he acknowledged the power of it.

Control was a bit further up his alley. Controlling living things as well meant that he could pull of all kinds of shenanigans without leaving his own body behind. It was however just as morally ambiguous and he wasn’t quite sure if he was fine with it. Building a harem was one thing, enslaving people's minds another. The mana cost was also very high. So he disregarded it as well.

The third option was very interesting. Not because of its power, he had no idea about how good this Artificial Spirit was, but because it created a new skill entirely instead of replacing Possession. For what he intended to do with it Possession was completely fine so instead of replacing it creating a new skill sounded like a good idea. What’s more was the fact that it was very cheap to maintain with 1 MP per Minute. With his current regeneration of 9 he could keep that running easily. If he just assumed that the Artificial Spirit could be somewhat powerful he could create a permanent bodyguard this way.

It was then that he remembered the Artificial Crystal in his inventory. If he used that he could create a loyal guardian that he could upgrade all the time. Maybe Gaia wanted him to do that? Or was it himself that did that piece of combination work? It was really hard to discern whether or not he was just dancing in the palm of that higher power all the time. He closed his eyes and did his best to remember what Rave had told him and how she looked like when she did “Stop doubting yourself.” He mumbled and clicked on Option 3.

Okay. Now what? He looked around the room for something he could use to test this ability on. There were some figurines on a shelf next to his bed. He had Kratos, Ezio, the Dragonborn, Samus Aran in her armour and A2 from Nier;Automata, last of which had a production error in the form of green instead of blue eyes. Funny story actually: As it was a rather small figurine, barely half as big as his hand, the producer (located in China, who would have thought) decided that running out of blue wasn’t a problem, nobody would notice anyway, right? Only about a thousand of these ever hit the market before the guy was fired and the figurines were discontinued until a later date. All this meant that this figurine was, probably, the most valuable thing in his possession. He picked it up and looked at it. It was A2 when she still had long hair, no weapon, no anything, just standing there with her slightly annoyed, passive aggressive expression.

Sure it was pretty cheap but if he could make anything come alive it might as well be one of the hottest things in videogame history and as he had no Bayonetta or 2B figurine at hand, which was a shame because of her outfit, this was about as good as it got. Before using the actual skill however John decided to use Craft on it to see if he could use the Crystal on it. If Enchantment had been any indication then order was key here and he only had one of these figurines. The window popped up and he only got the reshape option again. He pulled out the crystal to see if that would help. It did. The Crystal appeared in the ‘Materials in use’-tab and a new action became available.

That sounded exactly like what he wanted. He used the skill and his hands were forcefully pulled together as the Crystal and the figurine were suddenly attracted to each other by an irresistible ****. John let out a surprised shout, he dropped both of them and they fell to the ground, the crystal melting into the figurine. For a moment John panicked, thinking that he just ruined not only his quest reward but also his most prized possession, but the plastic closed behind the crystal without a single scratch or blister. In the end, what lay on the floor was the same figurine.

“Is everything okay, sweetie?” His mom shouted from the neighbouring room. “Yeah, sorry, just a sudden mini-boss!” John answered as he used Observe.

Well, that worked exactly as he hoped. He wanted to use Artificial Spirit pretty much immediately. Unfortunately, his mana was down to 35 now so he had to wait for two minutes. Two long, anticipating, agonizing minutes during which he stared at that figurine. The figure still had her passive aggressive expression and stared back with the light green eyes. Finally, he had enough mana and with great anticipation he casted the spell. He hoped for a nice, loyal kind of girl that would protect him to the best of her ability. Sure, nice wasn’t exactly a description fitting of A2 but still that was what he wanted.

The mana vanished. He waited. Nothing happened. “What the hell Gaia, is your code broken or…?” ‘Creator?’ A voice rang into his head. A nice, timid female voice, sweet, calm and collected. “Ehm, hello?” John asked the figurine. ‘Yes, Creator?’ He used Observe for a second time.

Okay, a new kind of screen. Probably because she was some weird mix-up between item and non-item. Ridiculous though that the name broke the Interface. He would need to do something about that. “Can I rename you?” he asked with a smile ‘What is a name, Creator?’ the voice asked, the figurine mimicking his motion and smiled as well. “Basically, it is what people address you with.” ‘Is your name is Creator?’ “No, my name is John but you can call me what you want.” ‘What I want?’ The figurine asked, ‘What is wanting?’. Okay, this was getting harder. “Ehm, wanting is to have the need to fulfil something. For example, you may want to walk to get to the other side of the table.” The figurine turned its head to look where he pointed, walked over and then looked back up to John. ‘I want what you want of me, Creator John.’ The figurine said and just opted with addressing him with both names for the moment. “So, you won’t mind if I give you a new name?” ‘I would never oppose your will creator.’ The figurine spoke into his thoughts. “Okay then.” John said “Your name will be…” Dangit, he had nothing prepared. What had been the short form of the crystal again? Art. Cry. L.Y.S., right? If he just added the new words Imbedded and Automata and completely shortened the first two he arrived at… “Aclysia!” He said. It wasn’t a bad name, at least he thought so. ‘Aclysia.’ She repeated, ‘If that is your wish, Creator John, then that will be my name from now on.’ The window updated the name. Not just that but a new Attribute appeared as well.

Learning Spirit. It was pretty obvious what that was about. He found it much more interesting what the Stat Window had to say. Why would an artificial spirit even need Libido? Could he actually make not her not only a bodyguard but essentially the greatest fleshlight in existence? She looked like A2, therefore like 2B but with long hair and bad maintenance and her personality, what little existed currently, did remind him of the short-haired battle droid. “What are your opinions on high-heels, stockings and French maid outfits?” John asked, a glint of obsession in his eyes. ‘Whatever do you want my opinion to be, Creator John?’

Perfect.